CINCINNATI – The area code said 513, and Carlos Dunlap did not know where that was. This was the 2010 NFL Draft, and the Bengals were calling to tell Dunlap that he was their second-round draftee.

“I was looking at the area code like, where is this?” Dunlap said. “I don’t know where 513 is. My sister or somebody Googled and said, ‘Cincy.’ I was like, ‘Where is Cincy?’ And here we are now.”

Dunlap is a defensive end from the University of Florida, and his hometown is North Charleston, South Carolina. He has produced 27 ½ career sacks since relocating in Cincinnati. In fact, Dunlap joked Monday about not knowing where Ohio was.

“I was a Southern boy,” Dunlap said. “We didn’t get out of the city too much.”

Dunlap said he has never forgotten that every other NFL team passed on drafting him, at least for one round.

“I still feel a grudge toward those teams, especially if they drafted a D-lineman in front of me,” Dunlap said.

Pro Bowl wideout A.J. Green, another Southern man (Summerville, S.C.) who played at Georgia, did not have to wait on a draft night call. Green was at Radio City Music Hall in New York when chosen No. 1 by the Bengals (No. 4 overall) in 2011.

“I was very blessed to get to go to New York and get picked,” Green said. “I didn’t have to wait that long.”

Green, dressed sharply in a suit, donned his Bengals hat and No. 1 Bengals jersey and smiled broadly for the cameras that night.

“All they told me was that I wasn’t going to make it out of the top five,” Green said. “I didn’t know if it was going to be Buffalo or the Panthers.”

Carolina took QB Cam Newton No. 1, Denver took LB Von Miller No. 2, and Buffalo took DE Marcell Dareus No. 3 before the Bengals took Green at No. 4.

Green is secure in his job but still monitors the draft.

“You work you whole life to get to that point, and when you hear your name called it’s an unbelievable feeling that you can’t describe,” Green said.

Some NFL players watch the draft to see who might be competing for their jobs. Others see it as a positive, as to who will be coming to help the club.

Veteran cornerback Leon Hall said he once watched the draft, but not anymore.

“I used to when I first got here, not just to see if they got cornerbacks,” Hall said. “I just liked to watch. Now, I don’t know, it’s just so long. It’s kind of like a spectacle. I’m kind of over it.”

With Hall in his eighth NFL season and returning from an Achilles injury, does he look closer at which cornerbacks may arrive?

“I try not to make things too difficult. If they bring in five corners they’re going to bring in five corners. It’s not going to make any difference to me.”

Dunlap said he tries to get an overall glimpse of what the newcomers may offer.

“It’s more of seeing who your team picked,” Dunlap said. “I try to see what positions that we drafted and see what they did in college, what we’re getting on our team.”

Defensive end Margus Hunt, the Bengals’ second-round draftee in 2013, said would-be draftees all have a body of work that speaks for itself.

“There’s no need to stress about something like that, because you cannot control what’s happening over seven rounds,” Hunt said. “Whatever you put on the film, whatever you do at the combine and the Senior Bowl and whatnot, everything else is going to sort itself out.”